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62d Congress] 
3d Session j 



SENATE 



(Document 
I No. 1146 



JEFF DAVIS 

(Late a Senator from Arkansas) 

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE 

AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OF THE UNITED STATES 

SIXTY-SECOND CONGRESS 
THIRD SESSION 



Proceedings in the Senate 
March 1, 1913 



Proceedings in the House 
February 23, 1913 



PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 



MP 



WASHINGTON 
1913 



Hi 






ivUs 









D. OF D. 

JUL H 13* 3 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Proceedings in the Senate: Page. 

Prayer by Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D 5, 8 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Clarke, of Arkansas 11 

Mr. Bryan, of Florida 24 

Mr. Ashurst, of Arizona 26 

Mr. Martine, of New Jersey 30 

Mr. Kavanaugh, of Arkansas 32 

Proceedings in the House: 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D 39 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Flood, of Arkansas 41 

Mr. Russell, of Missouri 49 

Mr. Cullop, of Indiana 53 

Mr. Oldfield, of Arkansas 57 

Mr. Taylor, of Arkansas 61 

Mr. Jacoway, of Arkansas 67 

Mr. Goodwin, of Arkansas 72 

Mr. Sisson, of Mississippi 78 

Funeral address by Judge Jeptha Evans 63 



[3] 




HON. JEFF DAVIS 



DEATH OF HON. JEFF DAVIS 



Proceedings in the Senate 

Friday, January 3, 1913. 
The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer : 

Thou who hearest prayer, hearken unto us, we be- 
seech Thee, as we make our morning supplication. Thou 
knowest our frame, Thou rememherest that we are dust. 
Thou hast made us to know how frail we are, and how 
brief and uncertain is our tenure in these houses of clay. 
Thou hast called from our midst a Member of this Sen- 
ate, making us to know anew that the way of man is 
not in himself alone, and that it is not in us who walk to 
direct our steps. And to whom may we turn, our Father, 
but to Thee who boldest us in Thy keeping, living or 
dying? We humbly commit ourselves to Thee, praying 
that Thou wilt keep us evermore in Thy love and uphold 
us with Thy spirit. 

And now may God, our Father, who hast loved us with 
an everlasting love, and who hast called us into His eter- 
nal kingdom in Christ, comfort our hearts and establish 
them in every good word and in every good work. Unto 
Him be glory and honor, dominion and power, now and 
forevermore. Amen. 

The Secretary proceeded to read the Journal of yester- 
day's proceedings, when, on request of Mr. Cullom and 

[5] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Davis 



by unanimous consent, the further reading was dispensed 
with and the Journal was approved. 

Mr. Clarke of Arkansas. Mr. President, it becomes 
my melancholy duty to announce to the Senate the death 
of my colleague, Senator Jeff Davis, who departed this 
life at Little Rock on yesterday. With this simple state- 
ment there is announced the close of the career of one of 
the most extraordinary men of his time and section. This 
is not the appropriate time to analyze his purposes and 
his plans with a view of determining the philosophy that 
controlled his life, public and private, but another time 
will be chosen for that purpose, when I shall ask the Sen- 
ate to lay aside its usual business to give attention to that 
feature of his career. 

He was extraordinary in the sense that he inspired 
friendships that knew no deviation and no surrender and 
provoked criticisms that absolutely went beyond the 
bounds of all possible reason. To ascertain the purposes 
that ran through his life will be the interesting study of 
those of us who had some opportunity to observe his 
course and to know his motives. As I said, I shall not 
proceed further along that line at this time, as I hope to 
be able hereafter to join with his other friends here in 
paying proper tribute to his life and his memory. 

I ask for the adoption of the resolutions which I now 
send to the desk. 

The President pro tempore. The Senator from Arkan- 
sas submits resolutions, for which he asks present con- 
sideration. The resolutions will be read. 

The resolutions (S. Res. 17) were read, considered by 
unanimous consent, and unanimously agreed to, as 
follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Jeff Davis, late a Senator from the State of 
Arkansas. 



16] 



Proceedings in the Senate 



Resolved, That a committee of eight Senators be appointed by 
the President of the Senate pro tempore to take order for super- 
intending the funeral of Mr. Davis at his late home in Little 
Rock, Ark. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to 
the House of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to the 
family of the deceased. 

The President pro tempore appointed as the committee 
under the second resolution Mr. Clarke of Arkansas, Mr. 
Pomerene, Mr. O'Gorman, Mr. Bryan, Mr. Ashurst, Mr. 
Martine of New Jersey, Mr. Curtis, and Mr. Clapp. 

Mr. Clarke of Arkansas. Mr. President, I offer the fol- 
lowing resolution, and ask for its adoption. 

The President pro tempore. The resolution will be 
read. 

The Secretary read the resolution, as follows: 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased the Senate, and the Senate sitting as a Court of Im- 
peachment, do now adjourn. 

The President pro tempore. The question is on agree- 
ing to the resolution submitted by the Senator from 
Arkansas. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to, and (at 
12 o'clock and 5 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned 
until to-morrow, Saturday, January 4, 1913, at 12 o'clock 
meridian. 



Tuesday, February 18, 1913. 
Mr. Clarke of Arkansas. I give notice that on March 1 
I shall ask the Senate to consider resolutions commemo- 
rative of the life and public character of the late Senator 
Jeff Davis, from the State of Arkansas. 



[7] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Davis 

Saturday, March 1, 1913. 
The Senate met at 10 o'clock a. m. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee 
for the gracious Providence which brings us to this day 
of solemn and reverent memory. As we recall the life 
and public service of him whom we this day commemo- 
rate, we pray Thee to inspire our minds and to give utter- 
ance to our lips that we may fitly honor the life which 
Thou hast called to Thy nearer presence and to Thy 
higher service. 

We pray Thee, our Father, to comfort those that 
mourn. Uphold them by Thy heavenly grace and grant 
that neither the height of remembered joys nor the depth 
of sorrows that can not be forgotten, nor the present 
with its burdens nor the future with its loneliness may be 
able to separate them from the love of God which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord. 

In the name of Him who abolished death and brought 
life and immortality to light, hear Thou our prayer. 
Amen. 

Mr. Clarke of Arkansas. Mr. President, I ask unani- 
mous consent for the present consideration of the reso- 
lutions which I send to the desk. 

The Presiding Officer (Mr. Page in the chair). The 
resolutions submitted by the Senator from Arkansas will 
be read. 

The resolutions (S. Res. 490) were read, considered by 
unanimous consent, and unanimously agreed to, as 
follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sorrow of the 
death of the Hon. Jeff Davis, late a Senator from the State of 
Arkansas. 



[81 



Proceedings in the Senate 



Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased the business of the Senate be now suspended to enable 
his associates to pay proper tribute to his high character and 
distinguished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the House of Representatives and transmit a copy 
thereof to the family of the deceased. 



[9] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Clarke, of Arkansas 

Mr. President: Senator Jeff Davis — and he delighted 
to call himself Jeff, and to have his intimate friends do 
the same — died suddenly at his home in Little Rock on 
January 2, 1913. As I said on another occasion, thus 
ended abruptly and prematurely the career of one of the 
most extraordinary men who made his appearance in the 
South in a generation. A simple recital of the events 
of his life, in sufficient detail to make his methods, his 
purposes, and his plans understood, would demonstrate 
this beyond reasonable dispute or cavil, but the pro- 
prieties of the present occasion will be satisfied with a 
less comprehensive treatment of the subject. Perhaps 
the time has not as yet come when this can be done im- 
partially and fully. While the tongue of criticism and 
complaint is stilled by the shock caused by his death, and 
in the presence of his sorrowing family and friends, per- 
manent impressions nevertheless exist which will inevi- 
tably find expression, when the sadness and sympathy 
of the hour shall have been forgotten, by those outside 
of the crushed and sorrowing circle of his family. This 
element may demand a hearing before a final and ac- 
cepted judgment shall be entered against his name and 
fame. 

Senator Davis was born in Little River County, Ark., 
on May 6, 1862. His father was Judge Lewis W. Davis, 
in early life a Baptist clergyman, and subsequently a 

[11] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

practicing lawyer of respectable attainments and high 
character. His mother still survives, and is noted among 
those who know her as a woman of strong character, 
superior intelligence, and noble qualities as a wife, 
mother, and as' a leader in the Christian and charitable 
work of the communities in which she has resided. 
While the dead Senator was yet a boy his father moved 
with his family to the county of Pope, where he resided 
until the time of his death, which occurred a few years 
since. There young Davis spent his boyhood until he 
entered the University of the State of Arkansas, where 
he remained for a period less than that required to cover 
the prescribed course for graduation. Shortly after he 
left the university he was chosen prosecuting attorney 
of one of the most important districts of the State. He 
discharged the duties of that office in a way that strik- 
ingly directed to him the attention of a section of the 
State which largely exceeded the boundaries of his dis- 
trict. At that time there was a well-organized and fierce 
conflict raging between what was then known as the 
People's Party and the dominant party of the State. 

The young prosecuting attorney was frequently taken 
from his labors in his district and sent to distant parts 
of the State to maintain the principles and support of 
the candidates of the Democratic Party. His methods 
of debate were unique and forceful, and never failed to 
leave behind him an impression that caused the event 
to be recalled for a long time after his departure. About 
the time he was elected prosecuting attorney he was 
married to Miss Ina McKenzie, herself the daughter of 
a Methodist minister. It is worth while, in passing, to 
call attention to the remarkable contribution made to the 
effective working forces of society by the pioneer Chris- 
tian preachers of our frontier civilization. The personal 



[12] 



Address of Mr. Clarke, of Arkansas 

hardships of this ministry, and the rugged qualities of 
steadfastness to a high purpose which caused them to 
devote themselves to the salvation of a weak and fallen 
humanity, reproduced their honesty and masterful quali- 
ties of fidelity in an offspring that constitute many of the 
leaders of the race in the communities where they cast 
their lot. The history of nearly every community in 
the Southwest will disclose instances which furnish veri- 
fication for this observation. The case of Senator Davis, 
and that of his beloved and devoted wife, bear as strong 
evidence of this as any incident within my personal obser- 
vation. Senator Davis was the beneficiary of much good 
luck and many fortunate contingencies, but in my humble 
opinion none of them have so profoundly affected his 
career as the circumstances which directed his course 
across the pathway of Ina McKenzie and united his des- 
tiny with hers. I enjoyed abundant opportunities for 
knowing personally that she was a woman of a masterful 
mind, strong convictions, and of gentle and powerful per- 
sonality. She was the only person I ever knew who 
could influence Senator Davis against what appeared to 
be his settled and fixed whims or purposes. With a 
woman's intuition she knew exactly what he ought to do, 
and where her judgment conflicted with his she generally 
found means to cause her views and wishes to be re- 
spected. She was not an unsexed woman who ruled by 
force of command, but she employed in her conquest 
womanly qualities only. These she possessed without 
limit, and by the exertion of them was able to control in 
such a way as to be in fact the helpmate of her husband, 
and to become the head of a family of children whose 
habits, character, and demeanor testify to the fact that 
while she was familiar with the controversies and meth- 
ods of affairs outside of the home circle, above all she 
was at her best in her home. A few years since she died, 



[13] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

leaving behind her a mourning family of splendid chil- 
dren and a distressed host of friends, all only too sensible 
of the fact that they had lost a devoted mother and an 
inspired counselor. A short time before his death Sena- 
tor Davis was married to Miss Lelia Carter, a member of 
one of the oldest and most respected families in western 
Arkansas. A host of devoted friends have tendered the 
inadequate and unavailing consolation of sympathy to 
her in the hour of her great bereavement. 

Shortly after the termination of his service as prose- 
cuting attorney Senator Davis became a candidate for 
attorney general, one of the most important offices in the 
State. In those days we did not have what is known as 
a general or blanket primary election for the selection of 
party candidates. Each county selected its delegates to 
the State convention and the method of selection was 
determined by each county for itself. These were usually 
held on different days and by different methods. Some 
employed a county primary to express the preferences 
to be supported in the State convention, while some held 
what is known as township or precinct meetings to select 
delegates to a county convention, which in turn would 
express the preference of the county for the particular 
State offices. There were several candidates in opposi- 
tion to Davis, but the principal one was Prof. Goar, the 
head of the Arkansas Law School. In nearly every 
county where a convention had been held the instruc- 
tions had been given in favor of Prof. Goar, and his nomi- 
nation was considered a foregone conclusion. 

While addressing a meeting of voters in Madison 
County he suddenly fell dead, and by this sad and sud- 
den event the political history of Arkansas for the inter- 
vening years has been cast on lines that could never be- 
fore have been dreamed of as a possibility. After the 
death of Prof. Goar the tide of political favor began to 



[14] 



Address of Mr. Clarke, of Arkansas 

turn to Senator Davis, so that when the convention as- 
sembled he had a majority of 1 vote over all of his com- 
petitors, and was nominated on the first ballot. It is part 
of the history of that struggle that when the tide of popu- 
lar favor seemed to be running so strongly in the direction 
of Prof. Goar, Senator Davis, realizing his probable de- 
feat, had begun to mature his plans to transfer his resi- 
dence to the State of Oklahoma. But all this was changed 
by his election as attorney general. From that time for- 
ward began a long career as spectacular and turbulent 
as that of any man who ever sought public office and 
political control during a period of peace and in a civ- 
ilized Commonwealth. Directly upon his entering the 
attorney general's office the legislature passed an act in- 
tended to suppress the depredations of the commercial 
trusts in so far as their conspiracies contemplated impo- 
sitions upon the people of the State of Arkansas. 

A conflict as to the proper interpretation of this act in 
its application to insurance companies immediately arose, 
and the new attorney general construed the statute to 
mean the absolute exclusion of all such companies from 
the right to do business in Arkansas if they were asso- 
ciated in any part of the world with any group of com- 
panies having a common purpose to control rates. This 
attitude was sharply antagonized by the friends of the 
insurance companies, and out of this difference of opinion 
came a pivotal opportunity which he had the ingenuity 
to seize and develop into a volume of protests against 
monopoly that proved sufficient to land him in the gov- 
ernor's office two years later. It is no disparagement to 
Senator Davis to say that two years before these events 
occurred no one would have ventured the prediction that 
such a selection was a political possibility. His election 
to the governorship literally wrecked all the organized 
political plans and systems that had grown up in the 

[15] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

State for half a century. The resulting demoralization 
and revolution in the administration of public affairs 
was no surprise to those who knew the real extent of the 
wreck and ruin Wrought upon the established order 
thereby. His stay of six years in the governor's office 
was from the very first day to the last a period of auda- 
cious activity and a constant warfare upon all the old 
arrangements and political traditions of the State. As 
governor he was called upon to make a great many ap- 
pointments to important public offices. He invariably 
chose those who might not have expected promotion 
under the old regime. It is complimentary to the general 
intelligence and learning of the citizenship of the Stale 
that notwithstanding his appointees were chosen from 
among persons who would not in the regular course be 
mentioned in connection with the offices they were called 
upon by him to fill, that they invariably " made good " 
and vindicated in nearly every instance the sound judg- 
ment which he exercised when he seemed to depart from 
the course marked out by the policy of political heredity. 
Ingratitude is a very human quality, and it is so freely 
exercised in the ordinary affairs of men that whilst it 
is always hated it is never regarded as a stranger and 
rarely excites surprise. It is complimentary to the sense 
of appreciation and fidelity of the hosts that he called 
around him as volunteers serving the purposes of a care- 
fully created, systematically organized, and specially 
favored " machine " that he was rarely the victim of 
ingratitude, and those of us who witnessed the 200 or 
more beneficiaries of his favor as they sorrowfully walked 
behind the hearse that bore his lifeless body to the grave 
felt that he had contrived according to a deeper philoso- 
phy and a sounder estimate of humanity than many of us 
suspected when he called around him that body of parti- 
sans whom he delighted to call the " Old Guard." The 

[16] 



Address of Mr. Clarke, of Arkansas 

Tenth Legion never established its claim to unswerving 
fidelity and courage by more unmistakable evidence than 
did this band of loyal and honored citizens. 

Shortly after Senator Davis entered upon the discharge 
of the duties of the governorship he developed a desire 
to extend his political career to the Senate, and he ac- 
cordingly began to lay his plans and to develop issues 
with this end in view. He invited strife in certain quar- 
ters in order to furnish him with an issue that he could 
successfully attack and thereby intensify the partisan- 
ship of his friends and account for the expressed hatred 
of his enemies. 

The essential facts evolved from even a casual study 
of his methods are that he never permitted anyone to 
become a half-hearted friend nor a concealed enemy. 
He early realized that half-offended friends might sooner 
or later find themselves in a position where they could 
do him more injury by encouraging the warfare of his 
enemies indirectly than they could as part of the open 
opposition. Therefore he never " fell out " halfway with 
anyone. He knew that in politics the relationship be- 
tween individuals is one for the advancement of mutual 
interests, and that such friendships too often endure only 
so long as mutual rewards bind the coalition. It is doubt- 
less true that many real friendships grow out of the busi- 
ness of politics, but the general course is as he understood 
it. He frequently found, in making his calculations for 
future political contingencies, that it would better serve 
his purpose to force a realignment than be burdened with 
a possible mutiny of some vital part of his combination 
at a more critical stage of the conflict. 

Thus it happened that at different periods of his polit- 
ical career the same persons were his enemies and friends 
alternately. When he once accepted a reconciliation 
with a former enemy he so dealt with him as to convince 

92685°— 13 2 [17] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

him that no resentment growing out of past differences 
remained, and when one of his friends or allies was forced 
to take up service on the other side he generally ridiculed 
him, less frequently denounced him, into a state of com- 
plete harmlessness. Of course, this process could only 
last as long as he had physical strength and time to go 
among his fellows and by his personal presence keep 
them inspired with the sentiments and hostilities of the 
hour, and to thus communicate to them the fighting spirit 
of the occasion that only one with his magnetic qualities 
when aroused could impart. His chief political asset was 
his power as a stump speaker. In the exercise of this art 
he exhibited the qualities of a master to a degree that 
put him in a class to himself. He was not a widely 
learned man, nor did he desire to be. He was not willing 
to devote the time and self-denial involved in acquiring 
familiarity with the views and methods of those who had 
gone before. He absorbed enough out of the general in- 
telligence of the country to be fairly familiar with many 
of the leading questions of the day, and could discuss 
them before an audience with a sufficient show of knowl- 
edge to impart all the lesson that they seemed willing to 
absorb. He never concerned himself about mastering in 
full scope and detail great and absorbing questions, since 
he felt that he could only make use of such aspects of it 
as his auditors were willing and desirous of understand- 
ing, and that he was therefore engaged in a wholly un- 
profitable service when he talked over the heads of those 
who listened to him. 

He knew humanity as few people know it. He did not 
deal largely with individuals. In fact, as the methods of 
practical politics are known and practiced, he was not a 
great mixer. He did not have an accurate memory for 
names and faces, nor did he seek to make a distinct 
impression upon particular individuals. He stood fairly 

[18] 



Address of Mr. Clarke, of Arkansas 

well with the whole crowd, and said or did something on 
every occasion that might be recalled in connection with 
approving comment by nearly everyone who heard him. 
If any disagreed with him, they were never in doubt as 
to the course they would pursue. He was essentially a 
fighter, and by pursuing tactics that aroused everyone 
else to the fighting mood he found it easy to enumerate 
his followers and to know his enemies. 

Those who were not for him were against him. There 
was no noncommittal element in the State when he was 
up for election. Whether he studied to a finality the 
philosophy which committed him to this policy, I do not 
know, but he mastered it as supremely as if he had, and 
practiced it with a precision and uniformity that could 
not have been excelled, no matter how closely he might 
have considered it. To an ordinary campaigner this is 
a dangerous course, and all that was needed to make it 
a fatal course was sufficient time, because it is as true in 
politics as in other lines of effort that friends fall away 
from one's standard more rapidly than his enemies for- 
give him. Napoleon was never more successful in turn- 
ing the assaults of an enemy in war than he was in 
minimizing to nothingness the assaults of his enemies in 
politics, and mainly by the power of ridicule and denun- 
ciation. He never courted sympathy, because it was 
certain that his enemies would never extend it, and his 
friends were bound to him by more virile and enduring 
forces. 

Probably much of his success as a popular leader was 
due to the fact that he came into political prominence 
at a time when there existed a widespread and deep- 
seated belief in the public mind that the powers of the 
Government were being exerted unfairly in favor of the 
few and against the interests of the many. The unequal 
distribution of the wealth and favors of the land were 



[19] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

a monumental and simple object lesson that called for 
an explanation and invited an attempt to apply a remedy. 
He capitalized this spirit of unrest because he did not 
seem to understand the situation differently from the 
people generally. In fact, it was not necessary to under- 
stand the underlying philosophy of the cause of it. The 
fact itself was sufficient to demand a thorough investiga- 
tion and the application of a remedy, even if funda- 
mentals must be modified in order to prevent a continu- 
ance of these conditions. He therefore took as his text 
the actual inequalities of the situation, the existence of 
which all seemed to be aware, and from the effects of 
which nearly everyone was easily made to understand 
he was a victim. Many who heard him did not care so 
much for the feasibility of any suggested remedy as 
they did to have voice given to their conscious dissatis- 
faction. He supplied this, and in full measure, and was 
thus relieved from working out his political advancement 
by the slower process of less-gifted aspirants. 

I happen to know that he was not satisfied with his 
career in the Senate. He accounted for that in many 
ways, and always promised himself that with more favor- 
able conditions he would be able to place his services 
here upon a higher plane of achievement in the future. 
When he first appeared in the Senate he was smarting 
under the resentment of wholesale and unwarranted at- 
tacks that had been made upon him, and a sort of spirit 
of retaliation seemed to linger with him and to some- 
what direct and control his actions and expressions. 
Long separation from his professional activities and a 
constant and large outlay incident to an almost constant 
necessity for campaigning had drawn heavily upon his 
none too large estate, so that after he entered the Senate 
he found it necessary to devote much of his time to the 
paramount obligations of his family. His attention was 

[20] 



Address of Mr. Clarke, of Arkansas 

therefore largely withdrawn from his official duties, and 
his enforced absence from the Senate thus prevented him 
from becoming familiar with that routine which is so 
essential to effective work here. When taunted by his 
opponents because of the modest extent of his achieve- 
ments here, he found no difficulty in parrying a thrust 
which must have proven dangerous to almost any other 
candidate. He replied that when he came to the Senate 
he found it governed by traditions and customs that pre- 
vented proper recognition of the voice of the people, be- 
cause its deliberations were dominated by standpatters 
and reactionaries, Democrats and Republicans alike, and 
that at the outset of his career he conceived it to be his 
highest duty to aid in creating a public opinion that would 
cause the people to replace these customs with those 
which would make more largely for independence, and 
its membership a keener appreciation of what the peo- 
ple were entitled to, and a firmer determination to achieve 
it for them. He enlarged upon this idea extensively and 
presented it most attractively. 

It was evident to those who were more intimately ac- 
quainted with his real opinion that he knew as well as 
anyone else could know that his frequent and long- 
continued absences were interfering with the efficiency of 
his service here. He readily admitted as much before 
the last State convention, which declared his nomination 
for a second term, when he said that he was most grati- 
fied to be able to say that his business affairs were now 
in such condition that he could promise a more constant 
service in Washington, but no more loyal or devoted one. 
He said it was his purpose to take upon himself the task 
of mastering some of the current problems of the day, 
and he hoped to make himself useful in evolving and 
applying remedies of a substantial character. His assur- 
ance was most gratifying to his friends and followers, 



[21] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

who found more difficulty than he did in causing his first 
explanation to he accepted. In the latter days of his life 
I found him more disposed to diligently investigate affairs 
of larger import than in former days, and I noticed an 
increasing absence of that intemperate form of expression 
which usually characterized his comment on official mat- 
ters. I was much impressed with the belief that it was 
his fixed purpose to achieve a name here that would be 
creditable to him, and he knew affairs of this life well 
enough to know that he could only do this by the severest 
toil and the closest application to his duties. This change 
of attitude toward the service here was most gratifying 
to me, and encouraged the belief that if he should marshal 
into a coherent force the great qualities of energy, mag- 
netism, and sincerity which he possessed and devote this 
combination to the achievement of the substantial things 
in which his people were interested his task would be 
easily and creditably performed. 

There are multitudes who believe that he died too 
soon to afford an opportunity for a proper estimate of 
bis real capacity and real purposes. His enemies be- 
lieved him to be a mere self-seeking demagogue, who 
would not scruple to take advantage of any want of 
information or misinformation of his followers to ad- 
vance his own political fortunes, while a larger number 
of devoted friends reassured themselves with the con- 
viction that he had a real capacity for statesmanship, and 
that after he had achieved a position where his own 
tenure was secure and his apprenticeship ended he would 
manifest the qualities of industry and constructive ability 
that would show him to be a real man among men in 
managing the affairs of the Nation. This question may 
now never be answered to the satisfaction and acceptance 
of all. I personally knew much of him, and I know 
that his intellectual qualities never were understood and 



[22] 



Address of Mr. Clarke, of Arkansas 

appreciated to the extent that they deserved. While at- 
tracting one class he repelled another, and thus he sub- 
mitted the question of his real ability and worth to a jury 
that may now never render a unanimous verdict. He 
was a greater lawyer than he ever got credit for being, 
and he was a more powerful intellectual force than casual 
observers ever believed to be the case. It is creditable to 
State pride to know that his death has now silenced every 
criticism, and that there is real sorrow throughout the 
Commonwealth to-day because of the event which we so 
regretfully commemorate to-day. 



[231 



Address of Mr. Bryan, of Florida 

Mr. President: Arkansas was generous to Jeff Davis 
in the honors she conferred upon him. He was elected 
by the people of that State prosecuting attorney for two 
terms, attorney general for one term, governor three times 
in succession, and United States Senator twice in succes- 
sion. He was in public life 20 years, held the highest 
offices within the gift of the people of a great State, and 
died at the early age of 50 years. The bare recital of 
these achievements proclaim him a remarkable man. 

It is not by accident that a public man wins and re- 
tains public confidence and respect for so long a time in 
the great offices of governor and United States Senator. 
The white light of publicity is thrown upon the record 
as it is written, and there will always be found those who 
are ready to take advantage of every opportunity to 
criticize adversely and to condemn. 

Senator Davis did not attain his success by default. 
He met and overcame opposition, sometimes of the 
fiercest, at every stage of his career. He had to fight 
his way. 

We all of us have our faults. Jeff Davis had his. I 
am sure he would not have us pretend otherwise for him. 
Moreover, men were not slow to call attention to these 
faults while he lived. He had his loyal friends and sup- 
porters, who would not believe anything except good of 
him, and he had also his bitter enemies. He recipro- 
cated in kind the feelings of each, with all the fervor of 
a strong, dominant, uncompromising nature. He asked 
no quarter and he gave none. He never surrendered to 
any foe save death — the great conqueror of us all. 

[24] 



Address of Mr. Bryan, of Florida 



The sudden ending of his earthly career seemed to 
draw closer to him the friends of a lifetime, and also to 
eradicate altogether the small and unimportant differ- 
ences that had existed between him and those who had 
opposed him. 

It was my privilege to attend his funeral. I saw his 
loyal friends from every part of the State, and was im- 
pressed by the unusual circumstance that a large number 
of them marched in a body to his last resting place. I 
inquired of some of those whom I met, to ascertain the 
secret of the success of this interesting man, and from 
the information thus gathered I attribute his success — 

First, to his unselfish fight for his party in the days 
when both the great political parties were strong con- 
tenders in his State for public favor, and 

Second, to the claim, which seems well founded, that 
he always remained loyal to his friends, who believed 
that in him they had not only an able but a courageous 
leader. 



[25] 



Address of Mr. Ashurst, of Arizona 

Mr. President: In obedience to a generous impulse of 
the human heart, the Senate of the United States, in the 
midst of its labors, at the closing hours of Congress, when 
every moment of time is precious, pauses to pay tribute 
to the memory of another of its deceased Members, and 
to contemplate what has always been regarded as the 
most profound of life's mysteries — the mystery of death 
and the grave. At the grave Alexander left his worlds 
unconquered, and the rich man parted with his gold. At 
the grave Mozart apparently gave up his music, Lord 
Bacon forgot his learning, and Sir Isaac Newton aban- 
doned philosophy and mathematics; at the grave friend 
is unlocked from the arm of friend and seemingly is 
thrust into everlasting and pulseless silence, where ambi- 
tion can no longer inspire nor glory thrill. During the 
Sixty-second Congress the greedy grave, whose ponderous 
jaws are never filled, removed from the Senate six Sena- 
tors and its honored and beloved presiding officer, the 
Vice President of the United States. Indeed, Mr. Presi- 
dent, it is startling to realize that such a large percentage 
of Senators die in service. 

From that memorable day — Monday, April 6, 1789 — 
when Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, appeared and took 
his seat, and thus formed a quorum of the whole Senators 
of the United States for the first meeting of the Senate, 
down to this date eleven hundred men have been elected 
to membership in this body, and out of this roster 149 of 
them, or 13^ per cent of the whole number elected to 



[26] 



Address of Mr. Ashurst, of Arizona 

membership, died while in service, Senator Jeff Davis, 
of Arkansas, being the hundred and forty-ninth Senator to 
die in service. This list of eleven hundred men elected 
to membership in this body contains the names of strong 
men and weak men; the names of philosophers, philan- 
thropists, and constructive statesmen; contemplative 
thinkers, whose classic features have been preserved to 
us by the sculptor and the portrait painter; men wearing 
the bloody gantlets of war; men wearing soft gloves of 
peace; men who opened and closed the purse of the 
Nation as they saw fit; men whose inelegant ostentation 
caused them to use their enormous wealth unwisely and 
unbecomingly; the names of sturdy farmers from New 
England's rock-bound coast; men fresh from the farms 
of the Middle States; planters from the Southern States; 
argonauts, ranchers, miners, cowboys, and Indian fighters 
from the Western States; orators who possessed, as was 
said of Mirabeau, "a tongue of fire steeped in honey"; 
the names of physicians who annihilate pain, who min- 
ister to the ills to which human flesh is subject, and who 
" charm ache with air and agony with ether"; historians, 
scholars, divines, and captains of industry; in fact, men 
of every creed, occupation, profession, and calling; men of 
valor, honor, and imperishable renown; men who, step 
after step, by honorable public service, raised themselves 
from the ground floor of log cabins to the highest emi- 
nence of human distinction, and a remarkably small per- 
centage of men who, during or after service here, so 
misbehaved themselves that they blighted their greatness 
and fame. 

Contemplating this long list of men, it is not excessive 
eulogy to say that history will record Jeff Davis, of 
Arkansas, as one of the strong and striking characters 
that have come to this body. He was a faithful friend 



[27] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

and a faithful enemy; at times in his life scorn and con- 
tumely were heaped upon him, but he always returned 
war for war, blow for blow, and scorn for scorn. He 
was "lofty and sour to those who loved him not; but to 
those who sought him, sweet as summer." He had, or 
affected to have, a profound indifference as to whether 
other men liked him. To his opponents he always pre- 
sented defiant belligerency or supercilious disdain, but 
through the cracks of the rough veneer of this man there 
was to be seen and felt a warm, honest, and loyal heart. 
He was an inveterate foe to what he conceived to be 
shams, frivolities, and frills. 

I said a moment ago that he was a strong man. Mr. 
President, no person could have been victorious in so 
many conflicts as was Jeff Davis and have attached to 
himself so many ardent and loyal friends unless he were 
indeed a very strong man. His friends clung to him with 
a beautiful fidelity, and neither time nor change nor 
false report could alienate their affections. He under- 
stood and appreciated perfectly the wants and desires 
of poor people. He was familiar with the disappoint- 
ments of their daily life; he knew their broken ambi- 
tions. He knew the high and too frequently the baffled 
hopes of those who moil and toil; he was the especial ad- 
vocate and friend of those men who, uncomplainingly, 
from day to day, met danger upon the trains, in the 
mines, and in the workshops, and it is recorded that in 
every lawsuit in which he took part he was invariably 
on the side of those who most needed help and mercy 
and to whom life, like the shirt of Nessus, the longer 
worn the more deeply it chafed the raw flesh and naked 
nerve. The accomplishment of these things writes Jeff 
Davis down as a strong man. 



[28] 



Address of Mr. Ashurst, of Arizona 

On the night of the 2d of January of this year he was 
seized by the sudden return of a disorder which had 
clamped itself about his heart some months previously. 
He called for his son to send for a physician, but before 
the physician could arrive Jeff Davis took his seat in 
the parliament of the skies. 



[29] 



Address of Mr. Martine, of New Jersey 

Mr. President: Jeff Davis was a great, splendid speci- 
men of manhood. My acquaintance with him was of but 
short duration. We seemed, however, during the little 
time we knew each other to rub one another the right 
way from the very first we met, and hence each day with 
him to me was a day of delight and pleasantness. Jeff 
Davis, blessed with a splendid physique and strong per- 
sonality, seemed to be a man who might reach a record of 
fourscore years and ten. We were congenial friends at 
once; his frankness and candor captivated me. 

Twice during our acquaintance he said to me, however, 
when I mentioned his seemingly good health, " I am not 
altogether myself, Martine; I am not well. While I can 
not leave to my family great wealth, I mean to leave them 
the history of an honest man." And, as God knows, I 
believe he did. 

I feel that the best gauge, Mr. President, of a man is the 
opinion of his fellow citizens. As one of a delegation 
appointed by the President of this body to attend his 
funeral, we went on our sad mission, and as we reached 
the beautiful city of Little Rock, Ark., his home, sadness 
seemed to pervade the people on all sides; flags were at 
half-mast, and gloom seemed everywhere apparent. 

Does some one say that Jeff Davis was bluff and blunt, 
different from others? Yes; in a way he was. But has 
not the great God of the universe in His wisdom made 
different shades in the foliage of a forest, yet all blending 
in a harmonious hue, all most pleasing to the eye? And 
so, even though Jeff Davis God had molded and char- 



[30] 



Address of Mr. Martine, of New Jersey 

acterized in a different way, yet Jeff Davis, broad, gen- 
erous, liberal hearted, and kind, was a splendid specimen 
of his Maker, an honest man. 

On all sides, as we wandered around the streets of that 
beautiful city, we would hear knots of men and see a 
gathering of tearful women all bewailing the loss of their 
splendid fellow citizen, Jeff Davis. Rich and poor, white 
and black, all gathered in the tearful cortege to do his 
memory honor. 

I feel, my friends, that as the day went by and as the 
sun went down all humanity seemed to testify that there 
had been laid away a loyal friend, a true husband, a 
loving father, a patriot, and a statesman. 



[31] 



Address of Mr. Kavanaugh, of Arkansas 

Mr. President: It is not simply a perfunctory compli- 
ance with an established custom that I ask the indulgence 
of the Senate for a few minutes, but a desire upon my 
part to deliver in these Halls, where he served with dis- 
tinction, a tribute to the memory of my friend the late 
Senator Jeff Davis. 

He was my personal and political friend for a period 
of almost a quarter of a century. Our friendship began 
before he had been drawn into the maelstrom of political 
life, where he gained his greatest achievements, and be- 
fore I had been chained to the treadmill of business. 
During all this time the bonds of friendship had grown 
stronger and stronger, and as time rolled on I learned to 
love and appreciate the many good qualities of my friend 
whose loss we mourn to-night. 

Senator Davis was born in 1862, midst the strife of that 
fratricidal conflict which came so near wrecking this 
Nation. It has been suggested that the spirit of the 
times impressed itself upon his nature, which, after lying 
dormant through the period of childhood and boyhood, 
asserted itself as soon as he entered public life. The 
only offspring of indulgent parents, he was given every 
advantage which his surroundings and circumstances 
would permit. We find him, while yet a youth, admitted 
to the bar and to membership in the law firm of which 
his honored father was the senior partner. He soon be- 
came interested in politics, and from the time he entered 
the arena until the moment of his untimely death he 
was the " stormy petrel " of Arkansas public life. Dur- 

[32] 



Address of Mr. Kavanaugh, of Arkansas 

ing his political career he overturned time-honored prece- 
dents, ignored cherished and sacred traditions, and ruth- 
lessly shattered the political alignments of a half century, 
and for what? His enemies said he did all of these things 
to gratify an inordinate and selfish ambition. He and 
his friends said he was actuated only by a desire to serve 
the great common people, whose champion he was, and 
to restore the affairs of government to the simplicity and 
democracy of the forefathers. As citizen, attorney, and 
statesman his every act and utterance was in behalf of 
those whom he termed " the under dogs in the battle of 
life." 

In passing an eulogy upon his life at the grave a noted 
jurist of his native State said: 

He was not very well suited to try a cause for a rich citizen 
against a common citizen * * *. His feeling and sympathies 
were intensely human. 

He held successively the offices of prosecuting attorney 
of his district, attorney general and governor of his State, 
and United States Senator. The secret of his great politi- 
cal success was that he never allowed himself to be placed 
on the defensive. He was so resourceful in maneuvering 
that he always found — and if he could not find it he made 
it — an opening for attack upon his adversary, and once 
the attack was begun he pursued it aggressively, fear- 
lessly, and, his enemies said, ruthlessly. As an illustra- 
tion of his boldness in political matters, I have known 
him while engaged in a contest to advocate on the stump 
the cause of another who was a candidate for a different 
office, or, upon the other hand, to assail another who was 
a candidate for a different office, when he deemed the 
man unworthy or that he was advocating a cause which 
Senator Davis did not approve. It may well be imagined 
that this brought down upon his head the maledictions of 
many people who might otherwise have not enrolled 

92685°— 13 3* [33] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Davis 

themselves among his enemies. Despite such daring 
actions his onward march to success was never inter- 
rupted. 

His friends fairly idolized him and with one accord 
indorsed his policies and actions. His enemies denounced 
him as a demagogue and a disturher, a destroyer of repu- 
tations. It has been said that he was the most beloved 
man, and, at the same time, the worst hated man in all 
Arkansas, but after all the denunciations have been 
summed up, his worst enemy has never accused him of 
dishonesty or corruption. In fact, his bitterest enemies, 
while railing at his successes and denouncing his methods, 
admitted the sincerity of his purpose and his devotion 
to principle. One of his most unrelenting critics was 
another friend of mine who succeeded by appointment 
to the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Davis. He 
is the editor of a great newspaper, the oldest, I believe, 
published west of the Mississippi River. In his news- 
paper, on the 31st of March of last year, he said: 

In his race for a second term in the United States Senate, Sen- 
ator Jeff Davis has again shown his consummate skill in the 
pleading of his political cause before the jury of the people. 
Former Congressman Stephen Brundidge has fought a great 
fight — and at this writing has not made admission of defeat — in 
contest with the man against whom no foeman has been able to 
prevail these years he has held one high office after another. Jeff 
Davis is, in fact, one of the most remarkable campaigners and 
one of the most successful popular advocates American politics 
has produced. He puts his hand in the public hand and gives it 
a grip that makes a firm and feeling bond between. Thousands of 
people, men and women, look on him as their champion, their 
guardian, their safety, and their hope. He makes his wounds and 
injuries theirs, and they would avenge them as they would 
their own. 

Thus, you see, those who opposed him realized his 
elements of strength. He was wont to say: "My friends 



[34] 



Address of Mr. Kavanaigh, of Arkansas 

are always right to me." And he expected his friends 
to reciprocate that feeling to the extent of its complete 
acceptance. He despised hypocrisy, he eschewed for- 
mality, and democratic simplicity marked the entire con- 
duct of his life. This was the side of the life of Senator 
Davis which was presented to the public, and in pre- 
senting it I have stated it candidly and correctly as I 
have seen it. As I have said before, we were friends 
and neighbors. 

Our associations lay along widely divergent lines and 
our' opinions of matters and men were often far apart, 
but each respected the opinion of the other and we were 
always able, after a thorough discussion, to reach an 
understanding which in no wise affected our friendship, 
and it is as such a friend I speak to-day. 

But, Mr. President, there is another side of the life of 
Senator Davis I desire to present, and that is the best and 
the most beautiful — his home life. No man ever lived 
who enjoyed a more ideal home life than he. He was 
twice married. His first marriage was to Miss Ina Mc- 
Kenzie and to them were born 12 children, 8 of whom 
live to bless and honor the names of the parents who gave 
them birth. There was no service Senator Davis would 
not perform; there was no sacrifice that he could not 
make that would add to the pleasure or comfort of his 
family. He saw to it that his children were given every 
educational and social advantage that would enable them 
to make of themselves useful men and women, and to-day 
there are no brighter, sweeter, gentler young men or 
women, boys or girls, in the city of Little Rock than the 
children of Senator Davis. His first wife was one of the no- 
blest women it has been my good fortune to know. Senator 
Davis fairly idolized her and was often heard to say he 
owed everything he was to her. His second marriage to 
Miss Leila Carter was no less happy. She entered into 

[35] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Davis 

the spirit of his ambitions and assisted in his duties as 
only a devoted helpmate can do and to-day, in their home 
in the city of Little Rock, she, the bride of a year, and 
the children of her husband and the aged mother of our 
departed friend, mingle their tears and sorrows together 
while trying to fathom the mysteries of fate that has 
taken from them their protector at the hour when he was 
most needed, comforted only by the thoughts that He 
does all things for the best — will care for them and so 
guide their lives that there will be a happy reunion be- 
yond. 

And now, Mr. President, may we not unite in saying: A 
chieftain has fallen, peace to his ashes, all honor to his 
memory ! 



[36] 



Proceedings in the House 

Friday, January 3, 1913. 
A message from the Senate, by Mr. Crockett, one of its 
clerks, announced that the Senate had passed the follow- 
ing resolution: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Jeff Davis, late a Senator from the State of 
Arkansas. 

Resolved, That a committee of eight Senators be appointed by 
the President of the Senate pro tempore to take order for superin- 
tending the funeral of Mr. Davis at his late home in Little 
Rock, Ark. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to 
the House of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to the 
family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased the Senate, and the Senate sitting as a Court of Im- 
peachment, do now adjourn. 

That in compliance with the foregoing resolution the 
President pro tempore had appointed Mr. Clarke of Ar- 
kansas, Mr. Pomerene, Mr. O'Gorman, Mr. Bryan, Mr. 
Ashurst, Mr. Martine of New Jersey, Mr. Curtis, and Mr. 
Clapp as said committee. 

Mr. Macon. Mr. Speaker, I move the adoption of the 
resolution which I send to the Clerk's desk. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the resolution. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

House Resolution 762 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. Jeff Davis, late a Senator of the United Stales 
from the State of Arkansas. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased 
Senator. 

[37] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 



Resolved, That a committee of 14 Members be appointed on the 
part of the House to join the committee appointed on the part of 
the Senate to attend the funeral. 

The question was taken, and the resolution was unani- 
mously agreed to. 

The Speaker. The Chair appoints the following com- 
mittee in the case of Senator Davis of Arkansas. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Mr. Robinson, Mr. Goodwin of Arkansas, Mr. Macon, Mr. Cravens, 
Mr. Floyd of Arkansas, Mr. Oldfield, Mr. Jacoway, Mr. Cullop, 
Mr. Davenport, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Miller, Mr. Greene of Vermont, 
Mr. Rees, and Mr. Kinkaid of Nebraska. 

Mr. Macon. Mr. Speaker, I move the adoption of the 
resolution which I send to the Clerk's desk. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the resolution. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

House Resolution 764 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased Senator and Representative the House do now 
adjourn. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the reso- 
lution. 

The resolution was agreed to; accordingly (at 1 o'clock 
and 27 minutes p. m.) the House adjourned until to-mor- 
row, Saturday, January 4, 1913, at 12 o'clock noon. 



Monday, February 17, 1913. 
Mr. Macon. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to 
have an order entered. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the order. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Ordered, That Sunday, February 23, 1913, be set apart for 
addresses upon the life, character, and public services of Hon, 
Jeff Davis, late a Senator from the State of Arkansas. 



[38] 



Proceedings in the House 



The Speaker. Is there objection to the present consider- 
ation of the order? [After a pause.] The Chair hears 
none. The question is on agreeing to the order. 

The order was agreed to. 



Sunday, February 23, 1913. 
The House met at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prayer: 

Hear my cry, God; attend unto my prayer. From the 
end of the earth will I cry unto Thee when my heart is 
overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 
For Thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower 
from the enemy. I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever; 
I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. 

From time immemorial, God our Father, men's 
hearts have turned instinctively to Thee in great crises for 
help, in sorrow and grief for comfort, in every contin- 
gency for inspiration and guidance; so our hearts turn to 
Thee as we assemble in memory of men who by faithful 
service in State and Nation gained for themselves the 
respect and confidence of the people, wrought well among 
us, left the impress of their personality upon our minds, 
and made a place for themselves in our hearts which 
time nor space can erase. " For we know that if our 
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have 
a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal 
in the heavens." 

" We leave this and straightway enter another palace 
of the King more grand and beautiful." 

We mourn their going, but not without hope. We are 
cast down but not overwhelmed, dismayed but not con- 
founded. 



[39] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

For the love of God is broader 

Than the measures of man's mind, 

And the heart of the Eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind. 

Enter Thou O God our Father into the desolate homes 
and bind up the bruised and broken hearts with the oil 
of Thy love, that they may look through their tears 
to the rainbow of hope and follow on without fear and 
doubting into that realm where all mysteries shall be 
solved, all sorrows melted into joy, soul touch soul in an 
everlasting communion, and eons of praise we will ever 
give to Thee, in the spirit of the Lord Christ. Amen. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the order of busi- 
ness in reference to the late Senator Jeff Davis, of 
Arkansas. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

On motion of Mr. Macon, by unanimous consent, 
Ordered, That Sunday, February 23, 1913, be set apart for ad- 
dresses upon the life, character, and public services of Hon. Jeff 
Davis, late a Senator from the State of Arkansas. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the resolution. 
The clerk read as follows: 

House Resolution 866 

Eesolved, That the business of the House be now suspended that 
opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of Hon. Jeff 
Davis, late a Member of the United States Senate from the State of 
Arkansas. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career the House at the conclusion of these exercises shall stand 
adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to the 
family of the deceased. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 

[40] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Flood, of Arkansas 

Mr. Speaker: From time immemorial it has been the 
custom among civilized nations to honor by public 
eulogium their distinguished dead. In keeping with that 
custom this day has been set apart by order of the House 
for the purpose of commemorating by appropriate cere- 
monies the lives and characters of a number of distin- 
guished Members of this body and of the Senate, among 
them the Hon. Jeff Davis, of Arkansas, late a Member 
of the Senate of the United States. 

Senator Jeff Davis died at his home in Little Rock on 
January 2, 1913. His career in politics had been mar- 
velous. He was born in Little River County, Ark., on May 
6, 1862; he was admitted to the bar in Pope County, Ark., 
at the age of 19 years; he was elected prosecuting attor- 
ney of the fifth judicial district in 1892, and was reelected 
in 1894, serving in that position for two terms, or four 
years; he was elected attorney general of the State in 
1898 and served one term, or two years; he was elected 
governor of Arkansas in 1901, was reelected in 1903, 
and again in 1905, and served as governor for three terms, 
or six years; he was a delegate at large to the Democratic 
national convention in 1904 and to the Raltimore con- 
vention in 1912; he was elected United States Senator 
February 9, 1907, for the full term of six years, and 
distinguished himself in the Senate by fearlessly assailing 
all forms of public evil and by his scrupulous fidelity to 
the principles of the Democratic Party, to which he 
belonged. He was again nominated for the Senate in 



[411 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

the Democratic primary held March 27, 1912, and had he 
lived he would have been reelected to the Senate by the 
legislature in January, 1913, for another term of six years. 
He died at the age of 51 years. 
Horace in one of his odes says : 

Pale death with impartial step knocks at the palace and the cot- 
tage gate. 

This sentiment, so beautifully expressed by the Latin 
poet more than 2,000 years ago, forces itself unconsciously 
upon our minds to-day. The fatalities of Members of this 
House and of the Senate during the present Congress 
have been such that we need not the admonition of poet 
or philosopher to convince us that neither rank nor 
station, vigor of intellect nor the prime of strong manhood 
can stay death's relentless grasp. 

The sudden taking off of the late Senator Davis in the 
hour of triumph and in the very acme of his most 
remarkable and successful public career was a shock to 
his friends here, to the people of his State, and to the 
Nation. It reminds us of the vanity of all human aspira- 
tions, the end of all human endeavor, and brings us face 
to face with the full realization of how fragile are the 
links that bind the strongest and most vigorous to the 
mystery we call life and of how impelling are the forces 
which drive the frail crafts in which we are all drifting 
with certainty to that greater mystery called death. We 
live in a world which is ephemeral in all things. The 
flowers bloom and give forth their sweet effulgence for a 
day. The oak bursts from the earth, grows to majestic 
proportions, withstands the blasts of winter and the 
storms of summer for a hundred years, yet yields at last 
and mingles its dust with the dust of faded flowers. Man 
born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. It is 
therefore meet and fitting when one of our comrades 



[42] 



Address of Mr. Flood, of Arkansas 



passes from among us by the hand of the Grim Reaper 
that we who survive him, whose lives are underwritten 
by no guaranty except by God's will and God's mercy, 
should pause and turn aside for a moment from the toils 
and struggles of the hour and from the fierce heat of 
incessant conflict that is carried on in these legislative 
halls and pay proper respect to the character and virtues 
of our departed friend and coworker. 

I desire to avail myself of this opportunity to pay a 
brief tribute to the memory of the late Senator Davis. 
Whatever others may think or say about him, I can 
truthfully say he was my friend, faithful and just to me. 

Loyalty to his friends and to his convictions was the 
element in the character of Senator Davis which endeared 
him to the great masses of the people of Arkansas. Pos- 
sessing characteristics and faults which it would be idle 
to disclaim, even in this presence, and which were depre- 
cated by many of his warmest supporters, he was a born 
fighter, bitter and vindictive toward his enemies, but 
always true and loyal to his friends, true to his party, true 
to his principles in whatever cause he espoused, and true 
to his own convictions. 

But his political warfare was not of the guerrilla kind. 
While he asked no quarter and gave none, yet he always 
fought in the open. His tactics were Napoleonic. In the 
great civic battles which he fought for political suprem- 
acy in his State he may well be compared with those great 
military commanders who by bold stands, skillful maneu- 
vers, long marches, and quick movements captured whole 
armies in their trail and brought back into camp wagon 
trains, immense food supplies, and great stacks of arms 
captured from their vanquished foes. He never placated 
an enemy. He was always loyal to his friends. When 
he was governor he would publicly proclaim from the 
stump that no man could receive an appointment at his 

[43] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

hands unless he was a white man, a Democrat, and a Jeff 
Davis man. He lived up to that code during his entire 
career. The last conversation I had with him was over 
the telephone on the day he left Washington for his home 
in Little Rock, just before the holidays. In speaking 
about the distribution of Federal patronage under the 
new administration he said to me, " I am going to stick 
to my friends," and added that he was willing to give up 
a great deal in the way of patronage in order to secure 
the appointment of a particular friend mentioned to an 
important position. And this was no idle or small thing 
with him. I have known him repeatedly in the midst of 
heated campaigns — and he never had any other kind — to 
apparently ignore his own interests in an effort to help 
out some friend. 

As a campaigner and stump speaker Senator Davis had 
few equals and no superior. He was a great crowd 
drawer. His style was vigorous, forceful, bold, aggressive, 
and characteristic — distinctly a Jeff Davis style. He was 
original, resourceful, happy in the use of catch phrases, 
defiant and austere toward those who opposed him, and 
loyal to his friends to such a degree that he never failed to 
incur the bitter hatred of the former and the unwavering 
confidence and devoted loyalty of the latter. The charac- 
ter of his campaigns and his manner of dealing with those 
who opposed him necessarily engendered much bitterness 
and made Senator Davis an object of extreme hate by 
hundreds of good people of the State whose political 
hopes and aspirations or the political hopes and aspira- 
tions of whose particular friends were shattered like 
frailest glass by the uncompromising opposition of this 
most remarkable man. 

I have never known a man who had greater political 
courage than did Senator Davis. He was often denounced 
as a demagogue, and yet he never truckled to public 

[44] 



Address of Mr. Flood, of Arkansas 



opinion. He took his positions boldly, and then molded 
and swayed public opinion to fit them. Assailed by the 
metropolitan press and by most of the newspapers in the 
State he in turn would assail the newspapers, and he is 
one of the few public men who have had the audacity to 
assail the press who was not finally crushed by it. His 
attacks upon the press, however, were but characteristic 
of the man. He assailed not the weak but the strong. He 
attacked not the helpless but the powerful. He sought 
his own preferment not over the unpopular but the 
popular. 

Senator James H. Berry was one of the most popular 
and deservedly popular men that ever figured in Arkan- 
sas politics. He had been a brave Confederate soldier 
and lost a leg at the battle of Corinth. He had been a 
State legislator, a circuit judge, governor, and served 22 
years in the United States Senate. His honesty, integrity, 
high character, and fidelity to duty during his long public 
service were such and his public record was such that 
even the critical eye of his opponent could find therein no 
guile. Gov. Davis entered the race for United States 
Senator against him and was elected. 

So he lived, so he won his victories, so he was loved, 
and so was he hated; but he is dead, and as one who knew 
him long and well and enjoyed his full confidence I pay 
him this humble tribute. I believe he was honest and 
sincere but often misunderstood. While undoubtedly 
ambitious for self-preferment, I believe he stood for 
those measures and policies which he conceived to be for 
the best interests of the people of his State and of the 
country, and that he would have gone down to defeat 
rather than to have surrendered the principles for which 
he stood. Vindictive, severe, and often merciless in de- 
bate, there was a kindlier side to his nature, and there 
beat within his rugged bosom those gentler feelings of 

[45] 






Memorial Addresses : Senator Davis 

love, friendship, sympathy, and affection that bound to 
him thousands of voters in every contest of his life. He 
reciprocated the feelings and affections of those who stood 
by him in a marked degree. In his friendships he fol- 
lowed the advice given by Polonious to his son. The 
friends he had and their adoption tried, he grappled them 
to his heart with hooks of steel. All over Arkansas to- 
day are thousands of people who will long revere his 
memory. From the southern border of the State, where 
the rich magnolias bloom; from the delta lands along the 
Mississippi, where cotton is king, to the great Northwest, 
the land of big, red apples, where the apple blossom, em- 
blem of the State, sheds its perennial fragrance over 
orchard, field, and farm, in stately farmhouse, in unpre- 
tentious cottage, in cabin, and in hut, in every hamlet, in 
every village, and in every town and city in the State, 
there are those whose hearts are bowed with sorrow at 
the passing of Jeff Davis. They are those who supported 
the Senator in all his contests and to whom he delighted 
to refer with pride as members of the old guard. They 
believed in the man and in his cause. They looked upon 
him as the friend, the champion, and the defender of the 
rights of the great masses of the people against the en- 
croachments of predator^' wealth and the unjust exac- 
tions of corporate influence and greed. They are the men 
who promoted him to place and power and kept him 
there until the All-Wise Ruler called him from the field 
of his earthly activities. To them words of praise are 
idle. To them encomiums are useless. They were his 
devoted friends and followers in his lifetime, and now 
that he is dead they will cherish his character, his vir- 
tues, and his deeds as a rich legacy, and will teach their 
children and their children's children to revere his name. 

You may break, you may shatter, the vase if you will, 
But the scent of the roses will cling 'round it still. 

[46] 



Address of Mr. Flood, of Arkansas 



My friendship and acquaintance with Senator Davis 
were not due to politics. I first met him and made his 
acquaintance more than 30 years ago, when we were 
both students in the University of Arkansas. I was also 
well acquainted with Miss McKenzie, whom Mr. Davis 
afterwards married. She also was a student in the 
university at the same time. 

I therefore feel that I ought not to close my remarks 
on this occasion without a brief reference to his family 
and to the domestic life of the late Senator. Senator 
Davis was twice married, and he left surviving him a 
widow and aged mother and eight children by his former 
wife. The first wife of Senator Davis was Miss Ida 
McKenzie, already referred to. She was a lovely, beau- 
tiful girl, the daughter of a minister. She developed 
into a noble Christian woman, devoted to her husband, 
to her children, to her church, and to her God. She 
died only a few years ago and was mourned by the entire 
people of the State. His second wife was Miss Lelia 
Carter, a daughter of Dr. Carter, one of the early settlers 
of Arkansas. She is the sister-in-law of Judge Virgil 
Bourland, and her family is prominent in all the walks 
of life. I have only a casual acquaintance with the 
present Mrs. Davis, who survives the Senator, but have 
every reason to believe that she, too, was devoted to her 
husband and deserves the sympathy of all in this hour 
of great sorrow and affliction. 

If there be those who still harbor asperity against the 
memory of Jeff Davis, if they could visit the Davis home 
in Little Rock and see that family of bright and intelligent 
boys and girls, now fatherless and motherless, and see 
that aged mother, now upward of 80 years, mourning the 
death of her only child, bowed in grief at the loss of one 
whose notable career is their every pride and whose 
strong arm was their every support, I feel that every 



[47J 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Davis 

emotion of envy and hatred would die out and friend and 
foe, antagonist and follower, with bowed heads would 
commiserate the untimely death of the junior Senator 
from Arkansas, and that the common and silent acclaim 
of all hearts would be " Peace to his ashes." 

Mr. Macon at this point assumed the chair as Speaker 
pro tempore. 



[48] 



Address of Mr. Russell, of Missouri 

Mr. Speaker: Arkansas and Missouri are sister and ad- 
joining States, with many interests in common, and such 
frequent and intimate commercial and social intercourse 
exists between the people of the two States as to make 
their aspirations and hopes so similar as to be almost 
identical. 

These States are bordered on the east and south by 
the Mississippi River, and some of its tributaries flow 
through both States, and so the interests of the people 
in the questions of river improvement, levee construction, 
and drainage problems have been mutual, and the 
cooperation of all of their citizens has been invited and 
exerted in the promotion of such improvements. 

In view of our geographical positions and our mutual 
interests, as well as our friendly relations, the Missourians 
in this house have felt unwilling to remain silent on an 
occasion like this, when the Representatives from Arkan- 
sas pause for an hour to pay a tribute of respect to the 
life and character of one of her distinguished sons, and 
as nine of the counties of the district that I have the 
honor to represent border upon the Arkansas State line, 
it was thought appropriate that I should speak for our 
State. 

I had the good fortune and the pleasure of knowing 
quite intimately and well the deceased Senator, and 
watched with great interest his remarkable and most 
successful political career. I first met him and heard 
him speak at Hot Springs, Ark., in support of his can- 
didacy in his first race for governor. He was at that time 

92685°— 13 4 [49] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

the attorney general of the State, and in his address he 
recounted his official acts and efforts directed against 
the great combinations and monopolies that were then 
just beginning to add to the burdens of the consumers 
of the country. His address was so plain and yet so 
pleasing and forcible he convinced me that if he could 
reach and speak to all the voters of the State his victory 
would certainly follow. He did win the nomination 
and election, and was twice reelected governor of that 
State. Afterwards, as is well known, he was elected to 
the United States Senate, and renominated as the choice 
of his party for a second term. 

Like all mortal men Senator Davis may have had his 
faults, but he possessed many noble qualities and 
generous impulses, and among the many good traits of 
character that made him popular, and for which I com- 
mend him to-day, was that he loved and trusted the 
common people, and his chief ambition in life was to 
faithfully serve them. 

Senator Davis and I entered congressional life at the 
same time, and on the same day that he first took the 
oath of office in the Senate I for the first time took the 
oath of office as a Member of this House. On Sunday, 
the day before we entered upon our official duties, I met 
him at the Calvary Baptist Church in this city, and after 
services we walked together to the National Hotel, where 
he was then living. 

I now distinctly remember that in that conversation 
he said to me: "Russell, I don't believe this life is going 
to suit me. I appreciate the great honor of a seat in the 
United States Senate, but I believe I would prefer to be 
at home with my family and friends in Arkansas." 

He thus early realized, as many public men do realize, 
that to serve in Congress, while it is in many respects 



[50] 



Address of Mr. Russell, of Missouri 

delightful and desirable, carries with it many sacrifices 
of the pleasures and comforts of a home life. 

Senator Davis often made speeches for me and other 
Democratic candidates in my district, and was always 
a very popular and a very effective stump speaker. He 
had many friends in Missouri, who greatly admired his 
personality and who enjoyed his addresses. 

For the purpose of illustrating one of his traits of 
character I desire to relate this circumstance: On one 
occasion he made a speech at Dexter, in my district, 
to a large audience, and by accident I met him afterwards 
the same evening at Poplar Bluff and asked him about 
the meeting. He said : " I had a fine audience, and gave 
them an old-fashioned Democratic speech, and among 
other things showed up your Gov. Folk in his true light." 
I replied, " Now, Governor, you have several appoint- 
ments to speak for me and the Democratic Party in my 
district. You can do me much good, and I am glad 
to have you speak for me, but Gov. Folk is my friend, 
and is also making speeches for me. He is the Democratic 
governor of Missouri, and I must protest against your 
abusing or even criticizing him." He became angry and 
said: "If I can't speak as I please, I will not speak 
at all, but will cancel all my other appointments in 
your district." 

I told him I was sorry to have him do so, but if he could 
not desist from his criticism of the governor of our State 
I thought it better that he cancel them, and he did so. 
He went to Little Rock the same night, and on the next 
day I received from him a telegram, in which he said : 

Dear Russell: I wire you to say that you were right and I was 
wrong. I will fill my appointments in your district, and will not 
again criticize your governor. 



[51] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

He did fill his other appointments to my entire satis- 
faction and the great pleasure of his audiences. 

I have spoken of this incident to emphasize one of the 
noble qualities of his nature. If he in the hour of excite- 
ment or under the influence of momentary anger said or 
did an improper or indiscreet thing, he was, after due 
reflection and deliberation, the first to acknowledge his 
error and to seek to correct the mistake made or any 
injustice done. 

Senator Davis was an honest and a conscientious public 
servant; but he, as most other public men do, believed in 
government by parties, and always had perfect faith in 
the wisdom and the justice of Democratic principles, and 
when a majority of his party had spoken upon any ques- 
tion he was always loyal to its verdict and its announced 
policies. 

I once heard a prominent public man, when speaking of 
some minor criticism made of him, say that whatever 
may be said of Jeff Davis and his mannerisms, no man 
can truthfully, from a party standpoint, criticise a single 
vote he ever cast during his six years' service in the 
Senate. 

Mr. Speaker, this was a splendid tribute to our de- 
ceased friend, and as the votes cast by a representative in 
Congress is the truest test of his usefulness as a servant 
of the people and of his fidelity to his trust, no greater 
compliment could have been expressed of Senator Jeff 
Davis. I believe the statement was true and the compli- 
ment well deserved. 



[52] 



Address of Mr. Cullop, of Indiana 

Mr. Speaker: When Jeff Davis, a United States Senator 
from Arkansas, fell asleep in the cold embrace of death 
one of our great public characters was removed. For 
a decade he had been a conspicuous figure in this country 
and had attracted much attention because of his bold and 
aggressive attitude on many of the great questions which, 
during that time, have attracted public consideration and 
have undergone public review. 

It can be truthfully said of him that in such matters he 
was in the front line of the battle and never in the rear. 
He had views on great questions and the courage to ex- 
press as well as the ability to defend them. No one will 
ever charge that in his 20 years of public life he ever 
evaded, dodged, or avoided an open avowal of his posi- 
tion on any matter of great public importance, but always 
in the open he declared his attitude and the reasons he 
had for it. He was not a " trimmer," he did not wait 
to learn whether a measure was popular or unpopular, 
to find out whether it would win praise or condemnation, 
but he viewed the question as a public utilitarian, and if 
he arrived at the conclusion that public weal required it 
he gave it his unqualified support and attempted to secure 
its adoption. In this he was open, candid, and earnest. 
Public welfare of the many who bear the burdens of 
Government was the greatest concern to him, and often 
in defense of their cause he incurred the opposition of the 
few and earned their displeasure, but to him this was of 
no consequence; he rather liked than disliked it, because 



[53] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 



he knew his position was defensible and his purpose 
would be approved by the masses whose champion he 
was, and he did not disguise his position. 

For 20 years he was a public servant, rising step by step, 
until he had received the highest honors the people of his 
State could bestow upon him. He was elected prosecut- 
ing attorney of his judicial district, and performed his 
duties so satisfactorily that he won for himself a repu- 
tation throughout the State and as a reward he was 
elected attorney general, and in this office he displayed 
such splendid ability that he was elected governor of his 
State three times in succession, and from there promoted 
to the United States Senate as a tribute of admiration by 
the people of his State, and was renominated with the 
assurance of a reelection for a second term. He deserved 
every honor his people bestowed upon him. He rose 
rapidly in the esteem of his people; they recognized his 
worth as a public servant, and in return they gave him 
their confidence and conferred honors upon him. He 
was their idol and to him they looked as a leader in whom 
they could repose confidence and not be betrayed. They 
knew when their rights were invaded they could safely 
appeal to him for protection and he would defend them. 
He delighted to champion their cause and plead for their 
relief. His heart beat in unison with theirs and his very 
soul sympathized with their wants and welfare. He had 
endured adversity; he had felt its discomforts, and his am- 
bition was to relieve all who were so unfortunate as to 
endure its deprivations and suffer its punishment. To 
elevate all such was his dream by day and by night, and 
whenever opportunity was offered he took advantage of 
it to ameliorate their condition. This was the reason for 
his great popularity; this was why his constituency con- 
fided in him and enabled him to enjoy their unbounded 



[54] 



Address of Mr. Cullop, of Indiana 



confidence, which he never betrayed. It was the one 
possession he guarded above all others as sacred. 

Because of his bold and aggressive position on ques- 
tions in which he took an interest he invited opposition 
and made enemies. He never conciliated any such made 
from such cause; overtures for compromise were un- 
known to him; the battle once on had to be fought to a 
final conclusion and the result accepted as the arbitra- 
ment of the question. Such type of men as Senator Davis 
is of great benefit to the world; they are the class of men 
who push the wheels of progress. True, they are called 
extreme or radical, but the fact remains that it is because 
of their advanced position that they overcome the reac- 
tionary positions taken by the opposing extremists and 
bring about the golden mean in the settlement of policies 
and thus accomplish direct results of much moment to 
the people. He did a good work, and his people are 
proud of the result. His life was not lived in vain. 

But, Mr. Speaker, one of his most admirable traits was 
his loyal devotion to his friends. This, above all others, 
endeared him to his people. He never forgot the friends 
of his early years when struggling to lay a foundation 
for the support of the splendid career he made for him- 
self and the service he rendered the public. They had 
an abiding place in his heart, and he rewarded their 
gratitude whenever occasion permitted. This quality is 
always commendable. He died at the beginning of a 
new year, as a new era was dawning with his star in 
the ascendancy, in the prime of life, when the future was 
full of promise, when greater opportunities were unfold- 
ing to him a new field where he could employ his abilities 
for the benefit of his constituents, to elevate their con- 
dition and secure for them the just and fair administra- 
tion of the powers of the Government established for the 



[55] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

blessings of a liberty-loving people. His genial face, 
manly form, and friendly grasp of the hand will be 
missed; they will be known no more. In his death the 
public service loses a valuable servant, his State its fore- 
most citizen, his people a devoted friend, and his family 
a loving husband and a kind and indulgent father. 



[56] 



Address of Mr. Oldfield, of Arkansas 

Mr. Speaker: On this occasion we are assembled for the 
purpose of paying tribute to the life, character, and public 
service of the Hon. Jeff Davis, late a Senator from the 
State of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, this is to me a sad, 
a solemn occasion, for Senator Davis was my personal 
and political friend. 

Senator Davis was born in Little River County, Ark., 
May 6, 1862, was educated in the public schools and the 
university of his State. He was admitted to the bar at 
the early age of 19 years. While a successful practitioner 
of the law, as a great many young lawyers do, especially 
those who live in small cities and towns, he entered poli- 
tics early in life and was elected prosecuting attorney of 
his circuit in 1892 at the age of 30 years. He was reelected 
to this office, and it is said of him that he made one of the 
ablest prosecuting attorneys his circuit ever had. 

Senator Davis entered State politics at a time when 
some of the brainiest men Arkansas has produced were 
in power. However, he brooked no obstacle and pressed 
forward to attain the goal of his ambition. He was bold 
and aggressive and immediately became the dominating 
figure in the politics of his State. 

Mr. Speaker, if I were called upon to indicate the trait 
of character most developed in Senator Davis, I would 
unhesitatingly say it was his determination to succeed in 
his undertakings — his will power. 

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate 
Can circumvent, or hinder, or control 
The firm resolve of a determined soul. 
Gifts count for nothing, 



[57] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

Will alone is great, 

All things must give way 

Before it soon or late. 

What obstacles can stay the mighty force 

Of the sea-seeking river in its course, 

Or cause the ascending Orb of Day to wait? 

Each well-born soul must win what it deserves. 

Let the fool prate of luck, the fortunate is 

He whose earnest purpose never swerves, 

Whose slightest action or inaction 

Serves the one great aim. Why, 

Even Death stands still 

And waits an hour, sometimes, 

For such a will. 

In 1898, at the age of 36 years, Mr. Davis was elected 
attorney general of the State of Arkansas, and at the 
age of 38 years was elected governor of his State, and to 
this office he was twice reelected, being the only man 
to serve our State three times as governor, and in 
passing, it may be said that his last contest for the 
governship was the fiercest and most terrific political 
battle ever waged in Arkansas. In 1906 Gov. Davis was 
nominated by the Democratic Party of his State for the 
office of United States Senator, defeating former Senator 
Berry — a distinguished veteran both of peace and war, one 
whom the people of Arkansas had rejoiced to honor — 
and was elected by the legislature of 1907. He was 
renominated in 1912, but before the legislature convened 
to carry out the will of the people and reelect him, after 
answering to the roll call of the Senate for nearly six years, 
he was suddenly summoned by the roll call of eternity. 
Senator Davis served nearly six years in the United States 
Senate, and I have never heard any man in Arkansas 
criticize a single vote he cast in that body. He was a 
strong man before the people, and he always took his 
fights directly to them. His idea of government was that 
the people should rule. He thought the best government 

[58] 



Address of Mr. Oldfield, of Arkansas 

was the one closest to the people, and his battles were 
always for the purpose of bringing the people and the 
Government closer together. 

Senator Davis was without doubt the most resourceful 
campaigner the State of Arkansas has seen. He was 
effective before his audiences, because he took the people 
into his confidence and appealed to the masses for 
support, and, as evidenced by his remarkable career, his 
appeals were not made in vain. To his friends he was 
true and loyal, as true as the stars to their appointed 
courses. He never forsook a friend or forgot a favor, 
and his loyalty to his friends was one of his great sources 
of strength. In his campaigns he was wont to refer to 
his friends as the " old guard," and when he sounded the 
call for battle the old guard was always ready for the 
fray, and when the ballots were counted they invariably 
showed that the " old guard " had stood firm and Jeff 
Davis had won. 

Senator Davis was not one of those who went with the 
current, but, on the contrary, he spoke out boldly the 
things he believed and the policies he advocated. If 
he was for or against a proposition of policy or legisla- 
tion, he boldly told the people and gave them his 
reasons. In his career as governor and Senator he 
always championed the side of the plain citizen instead 
of the special interests. His career, indeed, lends hope 
and encouragement to those who depend upon the 
support of the people instead of relying upon the agents 
of predatory wealth. It is an inspiration to the youth of 
the land who, without wealth, powerful friends, or 
family, must depend upon the justice and generosity of 
their countrymen. 

In campaigns Senator Davis was his own manager, and 
I have been told by some of his close political advisers 
that he had an intuition which seemed almost marvelous. 



[59] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

His combinations often appeared impossible and his 
plans impracticable, but under his leadership and in his 
hands simplicity marked their development and success 
vindicated their adoption. 

Mr. Speaker, death is the great leveler. 

In the democracy of the dead all men at least are equal. 

There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic 
of the grave. 

At this fatal threshold the philosopher ceases to be wise, and the 
song of the poet is silent. 

Dives relinquishes his millions and Lazarus his rags. 

The poor man is as rich as the richest, and the rich man is as 
poor as the pauper. 

The creditor loses his usury, and the debtor is acquitted of his 
obligations. 

There the proud man surrenders his dignity, the politician his 
honors, the worldling his pleasures; the invalid needs no physi- 
cian, and the laborer rests from unrequited toil. 

Here, at last, is nature's final decree in equity. 

The wrongs of time are redressed; injustice is expatiated; the 
irony of fate is refuted; the unequal distribution of wealth, honor, 
capacity, pleasure, and opportunity, which make life such a cruel 
and inexplicable tragedy, ceases in the realm of death. 

The strongest has no supremacy, and the weakest needs no 
defense. 

The mightiest captain succumbs to that invincible adversary 
who disarms alike the victor and the vanquished. 

Mr. Speaker, a tribute to the life and character of 
Senator Davis would be incomplete if reference were not 
made to the beauty of his home life. He was a devoted 
and loving husband, a generous and indidgent father, and 
the tenderness with which his family clung around him 
and to him marked the depth of their love and affection. 

The Speaker at this point resumed the chair. 



[60] 



Address of Mr. Taylor, of Arkansas 

Mr. Speaker: I have been personally acquainted with 
the late Senator Jeff Davis for more than 25 years, and 
while we had our differences now and then, yet we were 
always friends. 

Senator Davis in political life was remarkably success- 
ful. He held the office of attorney general of his State for 
two successive terms, the office of governor for three 
terms, and was then elected to a seat in the United States 
Senate, and had not the " grim messenger with the in- 
verted torch beckoned him to depart " the Legislature 
of Arkansas, which is now in session, would again have 
elected him Senator. All the days of his life he was 
an unswerving Democrat and always stood by the nomi- 
nees of his party with vestal fidelity. As a political cam- 
paigner he had no superior in the State. His friends and 
supporters, as also those who did not agree with him, 
attended his political meetings in great numbers. No 
man in the State approached him as to audiences in his 
speech-making tours, and his friends and supporters 
loved him, and their devotion to him was indeed beau- 
tiful to behold; they believed in and stood by him and 
for him on all occasions. 

The Senator was not what is commonly called an elo- 
quent speaker, neither was he a word painter, but he 
entertained and interested his audiences from first to 
last. In small counties often have I witnessed as many 
as from 1,500 to 2,000 people standing upon their feet 
for two hours, hanging upon his every word and fre- 
quently shouting their approval of his utterances. His 



[61] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

friends and followers had absolute confidence in the 
belief that he was truly interested in their welfare, not 
only their happiness and prosperity, but that he had the 
courage and ability to aid in bringing about results that 
would be helpful to them and the people of this country. 

Senator Davis was born in Little River County, Ark., 
but resided in Pope County of this State for something 
like 40 years, and whose people were proud of his succes- 
sive achievements. The people of this county were a con- 
glomerate of the highest independence, coupled with a 
county clannishness worthy of Scotland's proudest chiefs. 
They loved the United States high above any other coun- 
try, but loved Pope County more. All Arkansans were 
good to them, but a Pope County man had first call on 
their affections and regard. Senator Davis grew to man- 
hood among this people and imbibed their characteristics. 
They knew him as no other people knew him, and hon- 
ored him. One indication of individual worth and power 
is always associated with local reputation. The very 
intimacy of neighboi'hood affairs precludes the length- 
ened growth of incompetency. Weakness for a while 
may pass as strength, but the argus eyes of one's near 
neighbors soon disclose the wound. 

It is to Senator Davis's highest credit that for nearly 40 
years he lived with the people of one county, and all that 
time had their good will, respect, and their support. 

Ability may take the form of the trained judicial mind, 
it may appear in the silver tones of the accomplished 
orator, it may touch the silent room of the thinker, or 
walk hand in glove with the artist or artisan. Ability 
may be acclaimed by the expert student and the verdict 
accepted, but there is an ability which rests upon an in- 
nate knowledge of popular thought and sentiment, an 
ability which knows the people, their weaknesses and 
strength, their wrongs and their aspirations. In this sense 



[62] 



Address of Mr. Taylor, of Arkansas 

Senator Davis was a man of the people and by easy steps 
essayed their championship. In this he won the admira- 
tion of his home people and largely that of the people of 
the State. We may quarrel with his deductions and de- 
cry his methods, but the fact remains that the people 
largely believed in and followed him. This insight into 
the modus operandi of popular thinking and the ability 
to touch the mechanism into response made him great. 
No other man in Arkansas had this power in kind or 
degree as he. The people of the State were shocked at 
his death. Without the trappings of wealth or the aid 
of a great family name he plunged into the vortex of pop- 
ular rights and made for himself a name which reached 
far beyond the borders of his State. Among the great 
and learned he was not supreme, but among the plain 
people he was a conquering Achilles. When power 
crowned his career he still remained a people's man and 
he died in the harness. He rose, so to speak, from ob- 
scurity to the heights of renown and died on the crest of 
the wave. His rise was not meteoric, but steady and sure. 
He reached the sun-clad heights of his ambition and 
passed away with the illumination undimmed and left his 
countrymen the record of his life work. 

On Sunday afternoon, January 5, 1913, Senator Davis 
was laid to rest at the capital city of Little Rock, in the 
beautiful Mount Holly Cemetery in the presence of 15,000 
people; and in the presence of this multitude of people 
and standing by the grave of the dead Senator, Judge 
Jeptha Evans, of Booneville, Ark., a long-time and 
devoted friend of Mr. Davis and one of Arkansas's most 
able circuit judges, delivered a very able and eloquent 
address upon the life and character of Mr. Davis. I read 
here now a portion of his remarks : 

When a giant carrying easily the loads of life in the fullness 
of his power falls dumb and prostrate on the earth, heartstricken 



[63] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Davis 

by the darts of death, we, his surviving friends, gather in con- 
fused agony around his unbreathing form and unavailing tears 
spring unbidden to the surface and baptize with sorrow's sacred 
streams the pale countenances of those who loved him while he 
lived. How utterly powerless do we feel in death's mysterious 
presence. 

I knew this tower of strength that lies in human ruin before me 
for a long term of years. Senator Davis was reared in the same 
section of the State where I have lived since boyhood. We lived 
about 50 or 60 miles apart, and I am his senior by a year or two. 
I was born at the beginning of the fratricidal struggle between 
the States, and he just as the conflict became flagrant. His father 
was a minister of the Baptist Church and mine is a minister in 
the Methodist Church, and both bore arms as members of the 
Arkansas troops in the Confederate Army. On reaching manhood 
Senator Davis went to the law, and I have made some struggling 
efforts in the same direction. 

HIS CAREER AS AN ATTORNEY 

I knew Senator Davis first as a young lawyer at the bar. He 
was from the beginning a man of very marked ability and 
adaptation to the law. I was frequently in his judicial circuit 
and often witnessed his forceful strength. He was possessed of 
a legal mind of the intuitive kind. Where other men painfully 
sought out precedents and tried to follow legal principles along 
centuries of deviating counsel in order to ascertain the law, 
young Davis, with the precision of first-hand knowledge — of 
intuition — announced the right result. 

Senator Davis. was one of the finest trial lawyers I have ever 
known. He forgot nothing, overlooked nothing, neglected 
nothing, and saw through everything. The principles of the law 
favorable to his client's cause he stated clearly and handled with 
consummate ability. The evidence entitling his client to win he 
presented to courts and juries with such force that avoidance of 
the result he sought was all but impossible. He could come nearer 
than any lawyer I have ever known ignoring out of the judicial 
equation the principles of law and the testimony of witnesses 
unfavorable to his client's side. 



[641 



Address of Mr. Taylor, of Arkansas 



NEVER TRIED CAUSES OF THE RICH 

He was not very well suited to try a cause for a rich citizen 
against a common citizen. Indeed, I do not think he ever engaged 
in such a service. His great delight was to champion in court 
and vindicate the rights of the poor and weak against the rich 
and strong. His feelings and sympathies were always intensely 
human. While he was one of the ablest and most successful 
prosecuting attorneys the State of Arkansas ever had in its 
commission, I have frequently heard him thank God that no 
man was ever executed as a result of his four years' service as 
prosecuting attorney of the fifth judicial district. 

His legal successes were always phenomenal, and at the time 
of his death his law firm, from every quarter of the State, was 
looked to as the champion of the weak against the strong, as 
capable of securing in courts of justice the legal right of the poor 
against the illegal right of the rich. The Lord Erskine, lord by 
divine right of poverty, ability, sympathy, and eloquence, of the 
Arkansas bar lies voiceless before me. He has gone to a higher 
court, a court where justice never miscarries, where the juries 
are never bribed, and where the judge never nods. 

Mr. Speaker, when death comes the loved ones left 
behind " must tread the wine press alone "; to them words 
are but empty things, but we always feel deep sympathy 
for the bereft loved ones of the dead, and if we could 
relieve the stricken hearts in the lonely home of the 
departed Senator, what a joy it would bring to each of 
us — this we can not do. This great separation of husband, 
son, mother, wife, father, and children can not be spanned 
on this earth. Oh! there is so much parting in this life. 
Listen to the poet as he sings: 

All are scattered now and fled, 
Some are married, some are dead; 
And when I ask, with throbs of pain: 
" Ah! when shall they all meet again, 
As in the days long since gone by?" 
The ancient timepiece made reply: 
" Forever — never; 
Never — forever." 

92685°— 13 5 [65] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

Never here, forever there, 
Where all parting, pain, and care, 
And death and time shall disappear 
Forever there, but never here; 
The horologe of eternity 
Sayeth this incessantly: 

" Forever — never; 
Never — forever." 



[66] 



Address of Mr. Jacoway, of Arkansas 

Mr. Speaker: Of all the sweet and sacred ceremonies 
that precedent has established in this body, none, I think, 
is more beautiful than the custom of meeting here to 
do honor to the memory of those of our friends and col- 
leagues who have fallen before the sickle of the Reaper. 
This is the opportunity and the occasion for the expres- 
sion of our sentiments of love, regard, and appreciation 
for those who have gone from among us, who have crossed 
over the river and rest under the shade of the trees. 

When, however, I come to the knowledge that it is my 
sad duty and my privilege to address you on the life, the 
character, and the public service of the late lamented 
Senator Davis, the thought that lies uppermost in my 
mind is the realization of the poverty of my own vocabu- 
lary, the fact of the poverty of all human speech to do 
aught but to depict in barest words the history of this 
man. Beyond that words are but vain and futile. The 
archives of his State and his Nation bear witness to what 
he has been, but there is no power under Heaven to 
gauge what he might have been, and none of us can 
know the work he left unfinished. God has written the 
last chapter of his life, and the angels have closed the 
book. 

Senator Davis was peculiarly a product of Arkansas. 
During all the days of his life he was an actual resident 
of the State. Born in Little River County May 6, 1862, in 
the early days of that grim cycle of American history, 
when the plowshare was left to rust in the furrow while 
brother strove with brother in bloody conflict, his boy- 
hood was not greatly different from that of the other 



[67] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Davis 

youths of the period. A simple country lad, he went his 
way about his boyish tasks uncomprehending, I dare say, 
the distress and the disaster that the war had laid upon 
his country, and perhaps but dreaming only in the vague 
and unformed way of childhood of the measure of great- 
ness that some day was to be given him. 

But after the inscrutable manner of fate, he was early 
stamped as a favorite child of fortune, and it was decreed 
that the simple and honest love that he bore for the Com- 
monwealth should some day be paid back to him until 
his name was a household word from hovel to hall, that 
he should hold a place in the hearts of his people second 
to none and a position in the council chamber of his 
Nation. 

The genesis of his political career dates from his 
admission to the bar when but a boy of 19 years. Eleven 
years later he was elected prosecuting attorney of the 
fifth judicial district of Arkansas, comprising the counties 
of Conway, Johnson, Pope, and Yell. Thence his career 
was a triumphant march onward. Measuring legal lances 
with one of the most able and astute bars of the whole 
State in daily warfare, his early training equipped him 
well for the high honors that were to follow. Four 
jears later he became the attorney general of the State 
and in 1901 he was made chief executive. He was 
reelected in 1903 and again in 1905, establishing a record 
that has never been equaled before or since. Had his 
political career ended here, after this chain of unbroken 
successes, it might have been sufficient for the average 
man's ambition, but above and beyond was the ultimate 
goal. Its attainment seemed to be the inevitable end 
of his political policy — to bring nearer and dearer to him 
his friends, to stretch out his magnetic hand to others, 
until all vied with each other to search the gardens of 
their affection for flowers to weave into wreaths with 



[68] 



Address of Mr. Jacoway, of Arkansas 

which to crown him. On February 27, 1907, he was 
elected to the Senate of the United States, serving his 
first term with the exception of a few days. Had he 
lived he would have succeeded himself in January of 
the present year. 

Whether in the trials of causes in the court room or 
in the feverish campaigns that marked the hotly contested 
battles he waged for political supremacy, he was known 
as a fighter nor does history produce a general who laid 
his plans or adapted his tactics to the need of the hour 
with a skill more consummate than his. As a cam- 
paigner few knew human nature better than he, and as 
a public speaker he possessed an invincible potency, and 
few could gauge an audience with an accuracy more 
unerring than he. Politically he created his own senti- 
ment and asked no man to go where he himself would 
not lead. A master in the art of invective and satire, it 
perhaps may be that he was sometimes severely caustic, 
but friend and foe alike admitted his power. 

Born, as it were, in battle, even as the fragrance of the 
flowers in his early boyhood was blent with the acrid 
odor of burnt powder, so in later years the flowers of 
friendship that grew along the pathway of his career 
mingled their odor with the scent of hot fights for power 
and place. The early years found him a wondering boy, 
often pausing, perhaps, to listen to the dull, dead boom 
of cannon; and the later years find him a strong man, 
girt for the battle, a leader and a chief. The secrets of 
warfare were his, oftentimes the wounds and the hurt; 
but life had been lavish with its laurels, and even in the 
thickest, hottest of his campaigns he was spurred and 
inspired by the memory of other hard fights fought and 
won, and the knowledge of the multitude, the common 
people, if you will, who looked on him as their 



[69] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

champion and whose prayer was that their leader could 
not fail them. 

Such was his public life. That he was loved by those 
whose trust he had, whose leader he was, the great con- 
course of people, 15,000 strong, who stood at his open 
grave testifies. From the home of his boyhood they 
came, from the field and the forum, near and far. Among 
them stood a coterie of the Nation's most distinguished 
statesmen, the emissaries of his Government, who had 
journeyed thousands of miles to do him honor, and all 
listened with bared heads to the rites that consigned him 
to the earth from whence he sprung. 

The love and esteem in which he was held was 
intensified and deepened and broadened in his own home, 
where he ruled as a sovereign, a friend, and a comrade 
in one; a kind, a devoted and indulgent father, and a 
loving husband. Out beneath the stars in Mount Holly 
Cemetery at Little Rock he sleeps beside the Christian 
wife and devoted mother who went before him into the 
great beyond, while in the hushed home, with heartache 
and heartbreak, the lovely wife prostrated with grief, 
the aged and gentle mother who gave him birth, the 
stalwart sons and the womanly daughters he left, mourn 
his untimely death. 

There is, Mr. Speaker, a consummate tragedy in the 
death such as that which overtook Senator Davis in the 
prime of his life and the full flower of his career. It was 
not the mustering out of the wayworn warrior at the end 
of the campaign, nor the docking of the ship at the home 
port. It came upon him with the stealth of an assassin, 
striking without warning and without mercy, unheralded 
and unanticipated. A moment he stood, a strong man 
in the pride of life, and then he fell. Like that mysterious 
realm that lies beyond the frontier of life, so also are 
the ways of death and its manner of coming beyond the 



[70] 



Address of Mr. Jacoway, of Arkansas 

power of human mind to compass. Some die in the dawn 
of life, in that sweet world that is peopled only hy loved 
ones, and knows no rule but a mother's loving guidance; 
and some go out with the twilight, with the knowledge 
that life could hold no more. But Senator Davis died at 
the noontime of his life, a strong man full of force and 
power, a sachem in the council. Some one has written: 

Yet after all, it may be best, just in the sunniest, happiest hour of 
all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every sail, to dash 
against the unseen rock, and in an instant hear the billows roar 
above a sunken ship. For whether in mid-sea or 'mong the 
breakers of the farther shore, a wreck at last must mark the end 
of each and all. 

Mr. Speaker, for us all Time is beating funeral marches 
to the tomb, and " neither wealth nor station nor preroga- 
tive " can stay the coming of our dissolution. In death 
there ever remains an unfathomed, unknowable mystery 
and a philosophy that passeth understanding. It is the 
transition from the finite to the infinite, the veiled link 
between time and eternity. We know that yesterday 
this man was here, high in place and power, loving and 
beloved — vital with the rich red blood of life. We know 
to-day that the finger of God has touched him, and that 
he sleeps and is not; that these halls, or any earthly halls 
will never again shelter his presence or ring with his 
voice; that he has entered into the state that knows no 
caste or class, no place or power. Whether it was for the 
best I can not say. I do not know, nor does any other 
man. But I know that God is, that a deathless force lives 
on, and that long after the moss has grown green on 
the stone that marks his resting place, his name will still 
be bright on the pages of his Nation's history, and his 
memory deeply embedded in the hearts of his country- 
men. 



[71] 



Address of Mr. Goodwin, of Arkansas 

Mr. Speaker: Out of the great masses of the people few 
men rise to eminence and distinction. The Great Creator 
is not lavish in stamping the mark of genius upon his 
creatures. Under our scheme of government every man 
stands upon an equality with every other citizen of this 
Republic, but that all have been accorded the same treat- 
ment I shall not contend. 

The world's progress has been made not by its leaders 
but by the toilsome millions whose voice is never raised 
in the Nation's councils, yet whose toil, denial, and sacri- 
fices have wrought the glories of civilization. But the 
world's progress has been largely directed through its 
leaders. A swarm of bees readily becomes confused and 
disorganized with the loss of the queen bee. A flock of 
geese without its leader is chaotic and without direction. 
An army without its officers becomes merely an aggrega- 
tion of men and can accomplish nothing. A church with- 
out its pastor soon becomes as a craft that floats adrift 
upon the turbulent sea of worldliness, without rudder, 
compass, or even harbor for its destination. So with the 
history of mankind. The great masses of mankind are 
engaged in the various vocational callings, bread winning, 
and by their virtues, labors, and patriotism constitute the 
Nation's greatness. But every community, State, and 
nation has its leaders in thought and action. Some one 
must lead and be trusted. The man of high resolve, clean 
purpose, and with ability to command is naturally chosen, 
oftentimes by common consent, as the leader and spokes- 
man of a people. By nature, education, and talent he 
seems born to lead. 



[72] 



Address of Mr. Goodwin, of Arkansas 

The late Senator Davis was a man of many gifts. We 
are yet too near his active career to give proper perspec- 
tive to his great figure. Many of his activities already 
stand out in bold relief, but time can only give him his 
proper place in history. Essentially his greatest asset 
was his almost unerring judgment of men. Human na- 
ture had evidently been a great study with him, although 
naturally gifted along this line. 

Most great leaders have been students of human nature. 
It is the greatest of all studies, as no problem of social 
life can be solved unless the people and their environ- 
ment are understood. Pope understood this, as he so 
admirably expressed the thought in his great Essay on 

Man: 

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; 
The proper study of mankind is man. 

Born 51 years ago in Little River County, Ark., of poor 
but honorable parentage, Mr. Davis grew to manhood in 
the mountains of northwest Arkansas among the plain, 
unpretentious, patriotic people of that part of the State. 
Here, no doubt, the simple, natural manners and the 
homely sayings of these good people early stamped their 
impress upon young Davis, and these clung to him to the 
last. 

The early environment of Abraham Lincoln, his knowl- 
edge and sympathies of people struggling for existence, 
their quaint expressions, and the homely illustration ever 
ready at his tongue's end always remained with and 
became a part and parcel of Mr. Lincoln's life and con- 
tributed much to his greatness. The greatest fortune that 
can come to a boy is to be reared upon a farm, to know 
life in its simplicity, to witness the struggles and achieve- 
ments of men in all walks of life, sharing their sorrows 
and partaking of their griefs. It was in such an atmos- 
phere that Mr. Davis was reared. 



[73] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

After attending the University of Arkansas for a while, 
Mr. Davis later attended the law department at Vander- 
hilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., and was admitted to 
the practice of law at the age of 19, his disabilities of 
nonage having been removed by an act of the legislature 
of his State. 

At this early age he launched out actively into the prac- 
tice of law, and soon became a strong, popular advocate 
before juries, and later was in great demand as a political 
campaign orator. 

Always an intense partisan, his political speeches bris- 
tled in epigrams and in denunciation of issues that ran 
counter to the tenets of his own party. 

In 1892 he was elected prosecuting attorney for his 
judicial district, and reelected in 1894. In 1898 he became 
attorney general of his State, and in 1900 he was elected 
governor, and again in 1902 and in 1904, thus serving 
three terms as chief executive of his State, having broken 
all records for continuous service in that office. Upon 
an occasion like this it would be impossible to go into an 
analysis of the turbulent period during these six years as 
governor and the two years he served as attorney 
general, unless occupying time unusually granted upon 
these occasions. 

Although opposed by men of talent and lofty patri- 
otism, Mr. Davis was close to the hearts of the great 
masses of the people, and easily distanced all of his com- 
petitors, nor was he at any time in imminent peril of 
meeting with an adverse verdict of the people. During 
these eight years he was the stormy petrel in the shock 
of political combat, and there beat ever and anon about 
his strenuous, picturesque form the bitterest invective 
and denunciation by his enemies or the extravagant 
encomiums and the benedictions of his friends. 



[74] 



Address of Mr. Goodwin, of Arkansas 

There have been few public men whose lives were so 
strenuous in the public service or more resolute in the 
determination to conquer and overcome all obstacles 
that beset their political pathway than was that of the 
late Senator Davis. 

The political campaigns of Mr. Davis were always 
attended by an outpouring of the people for many miles 
around the places where he was advertised to appear. 
Men, women, and children would come by private con- 
veyance for many miles and hang upon his every word, 
and when he died thousands of his fellow citizens be- 
lieved that the foremost champion of human rights had 
passed away. 

After coming to the Senate the law firm of which 
Senator Davis was a member built up a most lucrative 
practice, consisting largely of litigation arising from 
personal injuries. Possibly Mr. Davis as a lawyer was 
at his best when representing a mangled client who had 
been injured by a public carrier in the discharge of his 
duties. Here he could give vent to his great emotions, 
and by picturing the physical condition of his client and 
the alleged reckless and wanton negligence of the defend- 
ant company wrest a handsome verdict as a compensation 
for injuries sustained. 

By temperament as well as by predilection Senator 
Davis would not have been a success as counsel for a 
great corporation. His sympathies naturally were with 
the weak rather than the strong. I would not say that 
he was a great lawyer, so far as an accurate, detailed, 
and labyrinthal knowledge of the law is concerned, for 
had he been a minister of the Gospel many of his brethern 
would have excelled him in abstruse theology and intri- 
cate metaphysics; but as an evangelist, picturing the 
horrors, the awfulness, and the degradation of sin, few 



[75] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

would have equaled hirii as a proclaimer of the Scrip- 
tures and in urging men to turn from darkness unto light. 
So, while he was by no means a master of the minutiae 
of the law, yet as an advocate of a client's cause, making 
the wrongs and injuries of his client his own, picturing 
in lurid colors the penury and sufferings of his client and 
those dependent upon him, Senator Davis easily became 
one of the foremost and most powerful advocates of the 
Arkansas bar. But it was not as a lawyer that Mr. Davis 
was best known both at home and abroad, but as a great 
factor in the political affairs of his State. 

If I were asked to lay my finger upon any one chord 
of his great popularity in Arkansas, the one thing that 
made him invincible in his aspirations and close to the 
hearts of his people, I would unhesitatingly say that it 
was the implicit trust he reposed in the great masses of 
his countrymen. He always appealed to the public for 
his support, thus realizing, and properly so, that the great 
body of the people are the source and origin of all power 
and authority — a conception, alas, that many men in pub- 
lic life fail to appreciate. Nor did the people fail to re- 
spond with their votes, once they learned of his confi- 
dence in them, but rallied to him, thus gratifying his every 
political ambition. 

In my opinion Senator Davis would have spurned any 
office other than that bestowed by the people themselves, 
as he was plainly a man of the people; and if this Repub- 
lic is to survive and the conceptions of the fathers are 
to endure, if equality of opportunity is to be given to all 
alike, this country must rest upon the love and confidence 
of all the people to the end that the humblest may have 
a voice in its councils and render his contribution in the 
perpetuity of its welfare. 

The sudden and untimely taking off of Senator Davis 
was a shock to all the people of his State, and had anyone 

[76] 



Address of Mr. Goodwin, of Arkansas 

been skeptical of the intense hold he had upon the people 
all doubt would have been removed by attending the 
funeral in the beautiful Mount Holly Cemetery, in Little 
Rock, on Sunday evening, January 5 last. No similar out- 
pouring of people from all parts of Arkansas has ever 
been witnessed before at any funeral. There must have 
been people from every county in the State, and multi- 
plied thousands crowded around his home, his church, 
and the cemetery to pay their tribute of love and respect 
for one the people loved to honor; and as night was draw- 
ing his drapery upon the earth, shutting out the sunlight 
of heaven, all that was mortal of Senator Davis was laid 
to rest beneath a bed of roses and immortelles contributed 
as testimonials of friends who loved and trusted him; 
and by the tomb sat the aged and saintly mother, bereft 
of her only child, the bereaved widow, and grief-stricken 
children. And may the God of Mercy keep these as in the 
hollow of His hand. 



[77] 



Address of Mr. Sisson, of Mississippi 

Mr. Speaker: It was with profound sorrow that I heard 
of the death of Senator Davis. He had a host of friends 
and admirers in Mississippi. They looked upon him as 
a genuine friend of the people. He made mistakes — so 
do all men — but Senator Davis made mistakes that never 
did an injury to the people who toil and produce the 
wealth of the world. He spoke always for the great mass 
of Americans. Their interests and their rights were 
always uppermost in his mind and in his heart. You may 
search the records of his own State and those of the Nation 
and you will never find a vote of his that was cast against 
the best interest of the people who toil in field, factory, 
and mine. 

Senator Davis had no enemies among the plain people. 
They knew and trusted him. I was present at a great 
gathering of people in one of the counties of Arkansas 
a few years ago when one of the hot campaigns for which 
that State is noted was at its crest. Senator Davis was 
to speak. Thousands of people were there — the plain 
yeomanry, the backbone of the country and of our na- 
tional existence. When Senator Davis arrived there was 
a shout of applause. Everybody seemed to shout. The 
faces of these grim warriors of peace seemed to recognize 
that their chief was there, and before he had uttered a 
word it was evident that the crowd was his. Men and 
women rushed forward to grasp his hand, and not until 
the master of ceremonies took him by the arm and led 
him to the stand was there a moment that he was not 
shaking hands with the multitude, calling them by name, 
and having a kind word for each one of them. His 
speech was one which no man living but Jeff Davis could 

[78] 



Address of Mr. Sisson, of Mississippi 



make. He convinced all that heard him of his sincerity. 
They knew him to be their friend. They called him Jeff, 
and when shouting their approval it was " Hurrah for 
Jeff!" 

Senator Davis despised — aye, hated — the tyranny and 
oppression of the rich. His soul went out for the poor and 
their sufferings. He was not in sympathy with the aris- 
tocracy of wealth, but with the aristocracy of worth. The 
nobility of men was not measured by him by their social 
position, but by their true and real worth. A workingman 
in his blue overalls, begrimed with evidences of hard toil, 
was to him more noble and more to be desired as a friend 
than the fashion plate of society. These are the qualities 
that made him friends and that made him enemies; 
friends of the workingmen and enemies of the selfish who 
would deprive them of the products of their toil. He be- 
lieved in his heart in equal rights and equal opportunities. 
He opposed all special privileges and advantages by law. 
In a word he was a democrat in the broad sense of the 
word. 

It can be said of Senator Davis that he never betrayed 
a trust reposed in him by his people; and if I were called 
upon to write an inscription for his tomb, I would write 
the simple phrase, "A friend of the people." 

Mr. Macon. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members who may care to do so may extend their re- 
marks in regard to the life, character, and public services 
of the late Senator Davis. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Arkansas asks unan- 
imous consent that all gentlemen who choose to do so 
be permitted to extend their remarks in the Record. Is 
there objection? [After a pause.] The Chair hears 
none. 



[79] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Davis 

The Speaker pro tempore. In accordance with the reso- 
lution previously adopted, the Chair declares the House 
adjourned until 10.30 o'clock to-morrow morning. 

Accordingly (at 8 o'clock and 28 minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned until to-morrow, Monday, February 24, 
1913, at 10.30 o'clock a. m. 

9 



[80] 



